The present invention relates to a robot, and more particularly relates to a robot which is compact in structure and may be smoothly operated to work in enlarged and amplified working region.
It is generally known that a robot is driven by a drive mechanism that is a slide unit or a rotation unit including links.
As the robot of slide unit drive type, it may be said that the X-Y robot is typical as disclosed in the Japanese patent application laid open Hei 7-328872. As the robot of rotation unit type, it may be said that the horizontal articulate robot is typical as disclosed in the Japanese patent application laid open Hei 11-114871.
The X-Y robot is generally made mechanically compact including a plurality of straight moving slide units which are arranged normal to each other so as to move the work holder with the straight and composite moving locus of the X-Y coordinates. Therefore, the working range of work holder will not be extended beyond the range which is determined by the X and Y composite coordinates.
As to the horizontal articulate robot, the working range is determined by the pivotal movement of a plurality of arms, and a high speed movement may be obtained. However depending upon a working range, the arms may come to interfere with each resulting in failure of work. Further since a plurality of pivot connections are provided on the base to move the work holder which is operatively connected to the pivots, a big load is given to the base and to the arms. It is, therefore, necessary to increase the strength of the mechanism. In any events, it is difficult to reduce the size of the mechanism. It is, therefore, difficult to use such device of mechanism as a unit to be built in another machine.
It is, therefore, a principal object of the invention to eliminate the defects and disadvantages of the prior art.